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British Houses

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This section is in advanced English and is only intended to be a guide, not to
be taken too seriously!

An Englishman's home is his castle, well that's how the saying goes, but it's not so much a castle as a shed. It's official...

The British have the smallest homes in Europe!

In fact they are downright
pokey, with only an average usable floor space of 76m sq according to a new
report by Bradford & Bingley. The Italians lead the rest of Europe with
the most space - an average of 92m sq per dwelling, over a fifth larger than
us Brits enjoy.

The report undertaken by the Centre for Economics & Business Research for
Bradford & Bingley compares the UK property market to Germany, France, Italy
and Spain. It reveals British living space per home is 12 percent smaller than
the average Spanish home, 14 percent smaller than in Germany and 16 percent
smaller than in France.

Moreover, the gap between the UK and the continent is widening with new homes
in France, Germany and Spain getting bigger. On average, newly built homes in
France and Germany have over 100m2 of usable floor space, while in Spain modern
homes have 95m2. In Britain, new homes remain the same size as existing properties
at 76m2.

These figures are more surprising when the types of properties are taken into
account as over four-fifths of British households prefer to live in a house.
The report reveals that 82 percent of British families live in a house and only
15 percent live in a flat. This is in stark contrast to families on continental
Europe where flats are more popular. In Spain, Italy and Germany more than 50
percent of families live in a flat and France is not far behind with 41 percent.
Yet almost bizarrely the average British family home has the least usable living
space of the countries surveyed.

Nickie Aiken of Bradford & Bingley Estate Agents commented on the findings:
"It is interesting that the UK is trailing the continent in terms of living
space, particularly when you take the fact that we tend to live in houses rather
than flats into account. Quality of life is not only about income and spending,
comfort is a core component. Hopefully the Government is aware of these figures
as it tackles the increasing demand for new housing in the UK."

Owning your own property is popular to differing degrees and despite the widely
held perception to the contrary, Britons aren't Europe's most prolific homeowners.
The Spanish (80%) own more of their homes than the Brits and Italians (69%).
The French (54%) and Germans (43%) own less.

Despite the right to buy initiatives of the Thatcher governments, Britain still
has the highest number of 'social housing', namely council or housing association
dwellings (22%). France has the second highest provision of social housing with
18% living in social owned homes. Whilst Spain barely has a social sector at
all with only 1%.

Compared to our counterparts on the continent, the UK has the least developed
rental sector with less than 1 in 10 (9%) British homes being rented privately.
This contrasts sharply with the staggering 46% in Germany - over five times
the UK level. This news is surprising given the recent surge in popularity of
buy to let mortgages in the UK.

There are marked differences between the residential property prices in the
five countries and the types of homes people can purchase. For £60,000
a homeowner could buy a semi-detached home in the north of England, a rural
home in Italy, a villa in Spain or an apartment in a French ski resort.